Jewish American Heritage Month

President Bush proclaimed May to be Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM) in 2006. In 2013, President Obama echoed the first proclamation, declaring that

Jewish immigrants from all over the world wove new threads into our cultural fabric with rich traditions and indomitable faith, and their descendants pioneered incredible advances in science and the arts. Teachings from the Torah lit the way toward a more perfect Union, from women's rights to workers' rights to the end of segregation... More than 350 years have passed since Jewish refugees first made landfall on American shores. We take this month to celebrate the progress that followed, and the bright future that lies ahead.

You can read more about New Mexico's Jewish heritage at the City of Albuquerque site,  and New Mexico is featured in 50 States/50 Stories, a collection of  "colorful, enlightening, and surprising stories about the accomplishments and contributions of American Jewish men and women who have helped to weave the fabric of American history, culture, and society."

Here are a few items on Jewish American heritage to consider:


To the End of the Earth: A History of the Crypto-Jews of New Mexico by Stanley M. Hordes

A History of the Jews in New Mexico by Henry J. Tobias

It's a Scream How Levine Does the Rhumba: The Latin-Jewish Musical Story - 1940s-1980s [CD]

Little Failure: A Memoir by Gary Shteyngart 

The Jewish Americans: Three Centuries of Jewish Voices in America by Beth S. Wenger 

MetaMaus by Art Spiegelman

Speaking of Jews: Rabbis, Intellectuals, and the Creation of an American Public Identity by Lila Corwin Berman [eBook]

Jewish Women Pioneering the Frontier Trail: A History in the American West by Jeanne E. Abrams [eBook]
 

Links

What To Read During Jewish American Heritage Month [Book Riot]

Essential Readings in American Jewish History [American Jewish Historical Society]

Jewish American Heritage Month 
Portal of the JAHM Coalition, convened by convened by United Jewish Communities (now The Jewish Federations of North America), The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives (AJA) and the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS).

Jewish American Heritage Month [.gov]
 This Web portal is a collaborative project of the Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

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Your guide to Jewish Life in Albuquerque and beyond.